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CSO Monitor from Novi Pazar, with the financial support of the City of Novi Pazar, in the period from July to December 2022, is implementing a project called “Community resilience building to the phenomenon of gambling”.

This project was created with the aim of increasing the resilience of the local community, and above all young people, to the phenomenon of gambling, through the creation of innovative and creative educational materials in video format that will be publicly available to young people and used to educate young people about all the negative consequences that gambling can have, with advice on how to resist this socially pathological phenomenon.

Namely, the problem that we want to influence with this intervention is caused by the increase in the number of casinos, as well as the offer of other forms of betting and games of chance, which results in the significant participation of citizens of Novi Pazar, and above all young people, in gambling, betting and similar games of chance. In the absence of a serious and systematic response from the social community to the education of young people regarding the gambling phenomenon, there is a serious and real danger that the expansion of gambling and the opening of casinos and the increase in betting and games of chance will continue in the future. Also, the problem that gambling brings with it is the connection with other forms of anti-social and anti-social phenomena, such as money laundering or money laundering, which young people are not aware of, and which also affects them becoming potential victims of fraud, i.e. moneylenders, loan sharks and other persons. associated with various criminal activities. From all this, there is a clear need for a systematic response from the social community in terms of educating young people, but also all other citizens of Novi Pazar about the harmful consequences of gambling and raising their awareness and knowledge about all aspects of this socio-pathological phenomenon.

The target groups of this project are primarily young people in Novi Pazar, as well as educational institutions and civil society organizations. When it comes to young people in Novi Pazar, they are the primary target group of this intervention. Through the production of a series of video tutorials aimed at opposing gambling, we will try to raise awareness among young people about the harmfulness of gambling, i.e. the negative consequences of this socially pathological phenomenon, as well as about the connection between gambling and other criminal activities such as money laundering, violent crimes, etc. When it comes to educational institutions and civil society organizations, they represent the secondary target group of users of this project. Namely, in their work, the mentioned institutions and organizations deal with the fight against various types of social pathological phenomena and deviant behavior, and among other things, the fight against gambling, providing support in the fight against gambling addiction, etc. By creating a series of video tutorials aimed at demystifying gambling, i.e. pointing out all the harmful aspects that this behavior entails, as well as the connection between gambling and other forms of criminal behavior, we want to create innovative and creative educational material, which will be useful to these institutions and organizations, publicly available for use in their further work in the field of combating this form of socially pathological behavior. In this sense, the general goal of the project is to increase the awareness of young people, as well as citizens of Novi Pazar in general, about the harmfulness of gambling and the connection between gambling and other forms of criminal behavior through an innovative and creative way. The specific objectives of the project are

a) creation of a series of 5 video tutorials dealing with gambling issues on the following topics:

– Gambling in general as a sociopathological phenomenon;

– Negative consequences of gambling;

– The most common myths and misconceptions about gambling;

– Recognition of gambling addiction and methods of withdrawal;

– Connection of gambling with different forms of crime.

b) publishing the aforementioned video tutorials on YouTube and promoting them through social networks, and direct promotion to representatives of primary and secondary schools in Novi Pazar, representatives of civil society and other interested parties.

The realization of the project was financed from the budget of the city of Novi Pazar for the year 2022 on the basis of a public call for financing and/or co-financing of programs/projects of public interest implemented by associations of citizens’.